Opposite Day
by moonlight-pixy
Summary: LJ oneshot: It's opposite day at Hogwarts. At least, that's what Lily and James were told. Her friends convince Lily to pay James back. She thinks she has nothing to lose. But she may just end up losing her heart. R&R?


**Hey guys!**

**I'm suffering from writer's block at the moment, that is why I haven't even started Even Icy Hearts Melt. However, I decided to publish a little oneshot (huge thanks to crushed-lilyflower for beta-ing even with all the things going on at the moment!). As usual it's LJ and a bit (O.K. a lot) fluffy. It might get a bit confusing with the whole opposite thing, but I hope you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing... sniff sniff.**

**If you like it review, if you don't please review anyway. Any critisism welcome :D**

**luv**

**xoxo**

**pixy**

**P.S. check out potty303. She's an awesome writer and a really cool person.**

* * *

"I hate Potter," Lily Evans fumed, throwing herself onto the bench beside her friends in frustration.

"We already know that you love him. No need to tell us again," Mary said through a mouthful of porridge.

"Didn't you hear me?" Lily snapped. "I said hate!"

"Yeah, but today love means hate, and hate means love," Alice explained casually as she perused _the Prophet._

"Why, is it opposite day today?" Lily retorted, her voice dripping sarcasm.

"Actually, it is," Mary grinned at her friend.

"Whatever," Lily rolled her eyes as she yawned and poured herself some coffee.

Lily looked up to see Frank bend down to kiss Alice on the cheek, before taking up a place beside her. Alice turned back to her, her eyes shining with delight;

"No, really it is," she assured her with a nod. "I hate you," she added to Frank, swatting him playfully on the arm.

"I hate you more," Frank grinned and tugged at her hair.

"See?"

Lily looked pensive for several moments.

"Black!" she called to the boy in question as he walked past her suavely.

"What?" Sirius came to a halt and wheeled around with a smirk.

"What day is it today?" Lily asked.

"Not opposite day, of course," Black winked, heading off to sit down at the far end of the table with his fellow Marauders. Lily brought herself away from her musings over why the boy with jet-black hair and a teasing grin was not sitting with his friends also to hear Alice chime from behind her newspaper;

"We _didn't_ tell you."

"Fine!" she cried, feeling flustered. "I mean…not fine," she corrected herself, catching on. Not entirely sure as to what was going on, she thought it might be best to play along with everyone's charade. "It isn't opposite day today."

"How are things with Potter?" Frank asked innocently, the corners of his mouth twitching with repressed laughter.

"Oh, just fabulous," Lily said darkly. "I absolutely love living in the Head tower with him. Sharing a bathroom is a real joy."

"No need to be so happy about it," Alice huffed disapprovingly. With an impatient scream, throwing her hands up in frustration, Lily got to her feet, abandoned her breakfast and rushed from the Great Hall. Moments later, and Sirius had strutted over to take Lily's vacated seat, Remus Lupin sitting beside him and Peter Pettigrew alongside Alice and Frank.

"Today will be so much fun," Alice whispered excitedly.

"If this doesn't work, nothing will," Remus shook his head.

"Do you think everyone will go along with it?" Mary asked.

"Of course," Black scoffed. "Everyone else wants them to hook up as much as we do."

"Everyone except Snivelly," Peter added thoughtfully, nodding pointedly towards a greasy haired, hook nosed boy who had just meandered glumly into the Hall.

"So? Who cares about him?" Sirius shrugged, and Remus cast him a reproachful look.

"Who cares about who?" came an amused voice from behind them. Turning around with a jolt, Sirius' eyes landed on his best friend, who had been watching the conversation with an expression of intrigue.

"Everyone," Black said hastily.

James blinked several times. "What?"

"Everything," Sirius shot Remus a knowing look; which was not reciprocated.

"Are you feeling alright Pad?" James stepped forward to feel his friend's forehead comically. "You're acting weirdly, even by your standards."

"Horrible," Sirius grinned, winking at Mary.

"Alright…what's going on?" James rolled his eyes, dropping all pretence.

"Definitely not opposite day," Mary responded cheerily.

"What?" James said again, nonplussed.

"That's right. Today is not opposite day," Alice agreed. James eyed her warily as if she were insane. He ruffled his hair agitatedly, wondering momentarily why his friends all seemed to have become slightly unhinged. Then;

"Hey, you!" he called to an innocent passer-by. "What day is it today?"

"Not opposite day, of course," a girl replied casually, receiving an appreciative nod from Sirius.

"Weird…" James muttered, shaking his head as if to ward off a gnat and stepping over the bench to sit down beside his newly mentally unsound fellow Gryffindors. When he turned his attentions away from his bacon for a moment he found that all eyes were on him, glinting with faint amusement. He shrugged if off, making sure to keep his eyes on his plate thereafter.

--

That morning Lily had managed to avoid James until second period, which by their usual standards was quite a triumph.

"What are you doing?" she blurted out, alarmed, when he dropped his bag to the desk next to hers with a clunk in transfiguration.

"Well, seeing as today is not opposite day," he said airily, taking up a stool, "we obviously have to do everything the same way as we do them every other day. And that means not sitting with you."

Lily cast him a sideways glance. From his diction you would guess he was perfectly at ease, but his hair-ruffling count was sky high, an obvious sign that he was nervous. She smiled to herself and decided to play along;

"You are so mature," she said sarcastically.

"I'm insulted," James grinned, turning to the front of the class, but with a slightly vacant expression.

"Morning class," the Professor called out, her tone already a little weary. "If you could all take out the homework assignment…I shall take them in…"

With a swish of the wand, thirty parchments rose into the air, flew to her desk at the front and began organising themselves into a neatly piled alphabetical order.

"Do teachers do opposite days?" James whispered to Lily.

"I think so," Lily shrugged.

"Would be quite funny if she--"

"Mr. Potter, Ms. Evans," Professor McGonagall snapped, her lips thin, "Is it something you wish to share with the class?"

James and Lily looked at each other, helpless. Should they continue the tradition of opposite day and put themselves in danger of detention? McGonagall was hardly the teacher to play games with; if only it had been Dumbledore, Lily thought…

"No, Professor, nothing," James finally responded lightly after a lengthy silence. "I was just explaining to Lily how to perform the wand movement for the spell you were…uh…talking about."

"Indeed?" she peered at him from behind her spectacles. "And so since you were paying such rapt attention, Mr Potter, perhaps you would like to demonstrate to the class how to make the goblet of water appear out of thin air?" McGonagall asked airily. "A crystal goblet, if you please."

"Sure," James shrugged. Lazily, he flourished his wand and the goblet materialised in front of their eyes. Lily, it seemed, was not the only person in the room who was surprised. She just barely managed to restrain a gasp, while McGonagall was clearly struggling with the concept of not being able to find something to reprimand him for.

"Ah…very--very well," the Professor stuttered slightly, looking quite taken aback but impressed nevertheless. James smiled innocently. "It's nice to see the two of you working together at last," she said stiffly. "But I will not tolerate chatter in my class. Ms Evans, if in the future you are having any difficulties, please ask me, or at least ask Mr. Potter _after_ class. Now, as you all saw from Potter's demonstration, the goblet appears empty, but in actual fact…"

"'_Difficulties_'?" Lily mouthed to James in horror, tuning out of McGonagall's monotonous continuation. "Did you _have_ to make out like I needed help?" she hissed.

"No. It was merely one of the many excuses that popped into my head," James answered her.

"Are we still going on with this stupid opposite day thing?" she snapped.

"No," James said and grinned lopsidedly at Lily. It was much to her horror that she felt her heart give a little flutter, though seconds later and she had convinced herself it was her imagination.

"Not fine," she snapped, "as long as it involves me."

With that been said, she averted her attention back towards the front of the class, her unseeing eyes fixed on the board. James followed suit and was unaware that throughout the remainder of the lesson Lily continued to glance at him out of the corner of her eyes.

--

"…he _doesn't _tell McGonagall that I _don't _need help!" Lily ranted to Alice and Mary, pacing the common room angrily. "What are you two laughing at?" she shot at them when all she received was irritating amusement.

"Everything," Alice replied through giggles.

Gritting her teeth to restrain a snappy retort, she changed tack; "Do you not know what we're not having for lunch?" Once again, to her infuriation, her friends cracked up laughing.

"What?!" Lily demanded, stopping dead in her tracks and glaring at them.

"It's just," Mary managed, clutching her stomach, "that all of us find it so… easy, to not do this whole opposite day thing, and it seems so difficult for you."

"That's what doesn't happen when you're dumb," Lily said arrogantly, grinning at her friends. As Mary exploded into renewed fits of giggles, Alice asked tentatively;

"So what are you not going to do about Potter?"

"Everything," Lily shrugged. So far she had not told her friends about the little flutter her heart had given when Potter had smiled at her. In fact, she had come to the conclusion that it wasn't Potter's smile that had made her heart turn over at all. There had been a breeze in the room and she must have shivered. Yes, that must have been it. Feeling flustered once again, Lily snapped, "And what the hell are you still laughing at Mary?"

Gasping for breath and struggling to regain her composure, Mary replied; "It's just…I was just not thinking about how much you did not sound like Potter just then when you were talking about how dumb you are." Lily looked about ready to tear her limb from limb for her audacity, so she quickly rushed on, "So, you're going to do everything about Potter, huh?"

"I think that's the right idea," Alice said hesitantly.

"Do you?" Lily asked, surprised.

"Well, we just don't think that after all these years you shouldn't pay him back. I don't think that you should use the opportunity opposite day doesn't give you as a chance to pay him back. Blimey, that was easy!" Mary exclaimed and wiping beads of sweat from her forehead.

"What don't you mean?"

"What she's not trying to say," Alice helped out. "Is that Potter hasn't embarrassed you for all these years. Now's not the time to take revenge on him. You don't know, like kissing him to express your love towards him. That way he won't think that he has a chance with you and tomorrow you can't embarrass him."

"_Kiss_ him?!" Lily looked repulsed.

"Don't think about it. He'll be really, really sad, and then, BAM!" she clapped her hands together dramatically; "you can't squash him like a bug."

"I know…I'm sure," Lily said doubtfully.

"Don't think about it," Alice repeated meaningfully.

Lily ran a hand through her auburn locks, and after a moment she replied, "…I won't."

And think about it she did. For the rest of the day she thought over the advice her friends had given her. Would it work? If she kissed Potter that night…if she dared to do that horrific thing…would it really be showing him how much she hated him? Would he forget opposite day and revel in his success at finally winning her over, so that tomorrow she could turn it around and use it against him? It sounded insane, even to her…but maybe, _maybe,_ the plan could actually work. Surely it was worth taking a little risk? After all, what did she really have to loose? The way she saw it, it was a win-win situation. If all went as planned, Potter might leave her alone, something she'd been wishing on for years…and if it didn't, well, it wasn't as though anything would change between them. She'd go on hating him, and he'd go on fantasising about things that would never happen.

"I won't do it," Lily told her friends at dinner with a slightly alluding smile.

"Horrible," Alice grinned, winking at Mary when Lily was looking elsewhere.

"When?" Mary asked after a moment's pause.

"Not after dinner," Lily said quietly. "I wasn't thinking that he wasn't going to be in the common room then. I really feel like kissing him in front of everyone."

"Not fair."

"Black didn't tell me that Potter isn't already in the common room," Mary said. "I would not strongly advise you to wait as long as possible."

"I think you're wrong," Lily said and stood up, biting her lip nervously. "Don't wish me luck."

"We won't," they chorused after her as she headed off for the common room.

"Did it work?" Sirius' voice carried up the table.

"Oh yeah," Mary smiled to him, "Operation Opposite Day is now in motion."

--

"Bye, Potter," Lily addressed him as the door to the Head's dormitory opened for her admittance. Her eyes landed on him reclining spread-eagled on the sofa reading some sort of Quidditch book, the fire crackling merrily in the grate before him.

"Bye," Potter said, the corners of his mouth turning. He looked up as she came in and his eyes met hers. She felt herself blush, but pushed the thought aside, swallowing;

"I didn't want to talk to you," she said, hovering in front of him awkwardly.

"What about?" James asked, cocking his head to the side, hazel eyes boring into emerald. But before he had a chance to say anything more, before Lily had a chance to cop out and second guess what she was about to do, she was launching herself into his arms, her lips crushing against his.

"What the..?" James managed to choke out when she finally broke away for oxygen. Lily simply grinned and then she was kissing him again. And for him it was bliss, it made everything stop and everything start…but this time James held himself back. He pulled away regrettably, scooping her into his lap, playing gently with the ends of her hair. He looked as though he was trying to say something, and Lily was looking over his hair, his lips, his jawbone…and then into his eyes. Still seemingly struggling to find words, he put his fingertips to her chest and felt her heartbeat pounding against them. He smiled. And to her surprise, she realised she liked him kissing her. Her heart was slamming against her ribs, and she was almost shivering with excitement. There were mere inches between them and she very much wanted to close the distance…'_No_,' a voice inside her head rallied her. '_You don't like_ **him**_ kissing you. He's just a good kisser, that's all. You'd like any good looking-- I mean good kissing-- guy kissing you…'_  
Moments later, without knowing what she was doing, Lily tangled a hand into his hair and pulled him close once again. She lost every sense of time. She could not think of anything or anyone in the world but him. But just as before, James pulled away. Lily gave a little groan of protest. For a frozen moment they simply stared at one another, until suddenly, without another word, James manoeuvred himself from her, stood up and left. Lily remained motionless on the couch, blinking into the silence, stunned. What the hell had just happened? What had she done? That was not how she had planned things. She hadn't planned to – she hadn't thought she would--she consulted her watch -- kiss him for _twenty minutes_! She hadn't planned for her heart to be racing, her lips to be swollen and her hair to be tousled. Her plan had been to kiss him and then destroy him the next day. Rubbing her throbbing temples with a half-sob, she realised that she had been so wrong when she 

had thought she had nothing to loose. She had _everything _to loose. Instead of it belonging to only herself, it was now lost to the boy with jet black hair and hazel eyes. Angrily, she stood and vented her frustration by upending the coffee table with a violent kick. How could she have let that happen?! …'_Wait,'_ said the voice from the back of her mind, _'you can fix this...' _If she just stayed away...kept her distance, cut him off…Yes, that would work.  
Determined, Lily jogged the stairs two at a time and locked herself away in her bedroom, intent on staying there for the rest of the evening. Miserably, after a mere four hours of changing the colours of her walls magically for entertainment, she could not stand it any longer:

"Potter, open up!" she yelled, banging against the door with her fists, all notions of opposite day forgotten.

"What?" he snapped impatiently as the door flew open.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" she demanded, before adding more quietly, "Why did you pull away?"

"You know why," James said to the floor, trying to snap the door shut. Lily managed to keep it open by jarring her foot in the gap he was trying to close.

"Why?" she persisted.

"It's opposite day today. You kissed me because it's opposite day…the one thing that was the furthest away from what you would contemplate doing any other day. The thing that repulsed you the most," his eyes flashed. "You used the only thing you had against me."

"James, I—it wasn't like that--" Lily stumbled over her words. "Alice and Mary--"

He looked at her pointedly. "Alice and Mary what?"

"I…James--" she pleaded.

"That's what I thought," he said darkly, trying again to slam the door in her face, desperate for a reaction, for a way to rid himself of his feelings, but Lily would not budge.

"Wait," she said feebly, after regaining control of her voice. "I'm really sorry."

"So am I," he said coldly. The first traitorous tear slid down Lily's cheek.

"Damn it," James said furiously. "Don't cry."

"I…can't--can't stop," Lily sobbed, swiping away tears impatiently. Heaving a great sigh, James ruffled his hair, finally forcing himself to look her in the eye. In that instant, his anger ebbed away and his heart seemed to go into freefall…and all he wanted to do was look after her.

"Come here," he whispered, pulling her into his chest. He kissed the top of her head and cradled her until her crying subsided and she wrapped her arms around his waist, clinging to him as he was clinging to her. And then he lifted her chin with his thumb, and looked deep into her emerald green orbs.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you, too," Lily replied, just as twelve o' clock chimed in the distance.

"Opposite day is over," James said gently.

"I know," Lily smiled.

* * *

**So what did you think? Let me know.**

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**xox**

**pixy**


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